ABSTRACT

Strategic nuclear arms control negotiations had for over a quarter of a century concentrated on managing nuclear competition. The primary concern became to ensure continued and effective control over the vast Soviet nuclear stockpile, which consisted of some 27,000 weapons spread out over much of the former Soviet Union. The essence of American nuclear diplomacy, including arms control as the means of that diplomacy, was consequently transformed almost overnight. The extent to which political change in the Soviet Union was forcing a transformation of the nuclear arms control agenda was underscored by a new round of unilateral and reciprocal measures proposed in late January 1992, after the USSR had formally ceased to exist. Three goals dominated American nuclear diplomacy after the Moscow coup: Preserving agreed arms-control undertakings, avoiding the emergence of new nuclear weapons states and preventing the proliferation of weapons and know-how and Securing additional nuclear force reductions.